Your Right to Know

By Raymond HernandezTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Wednesday January 16, 2013 6:14 AM

WASHINGTON — After coming under intense pressure from political leaders in states across the
Northeast, the U.S. House yesterday passed a long-awaited $50.7 billion emergency bill to provide
help to victims of superstorm Sandy.

The aid package passed 241-180, with 49 Republicans joining 192 Democrats to approve it.The bill
now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. President Barack Obama has expressed support
for the measure.

The $50.7 billion — along with a nearly $10 billion aid package that Congress approved about a
week ago — seeks to pay for a variety of needs that have arisen since the hurricane struck more
than two months ago.

The money would help homeowners and small-business owners rebuild, reinforce shorelines, repair
subway and commuter rail systems, fix bridges and tunnels, and reimburse local governments for
policing, firefighting and other emergency expenditures.

Although the package does not fully cover the $82 billion in damage identified by the governors
of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the region’s leaders expressed relief. Storm aid had
become ensnared in the larger House debate over spending and deficits.

Rep. Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island who helped press his party’s leadership into
holding the vote, hailed the package’s passage as a victory for storm victims, but he said the
House should have acted earlier.

“It is unfortunate that we had

to fight so hard to be treated the same as every other state has been treated,” he said.